The Mastery of Nature

Aspects of Art, Science, and Humanism in the Renaissance

Bibliographic Data

ID16609366
AuthorsSheila Mctighe (corresponding author)
Year1994
Volume25
Issue3
Pages716-717
Publication date1994-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueSixteenth Century Journal (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0361-0160 • E-ISSN: 2326-0726
PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.2307/2542675
OpenAlexW2168317772
LanguageEN
Citations received15

Responding to ongoing debates over the role of humanism in the rise of empirical science, Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann explores the history of Renaissance art to help explain the complex beginnings of the revolution. In a rich collection of new and previously published essays addressing conceptions of the mastery of nature, he discusses the depiction of nature in works of art, scientific approaches to understanding the world, and imperial claims to world control. This interdisciplinary approach elucidates the varying ways art, science, and humanism interact. This book contains a new assessment of the origins of trompe-l'oeil illumination in manuscript painting in response to religious devotional practices; an account of the history of shadow projection in art theory in relation to perspective, astronomy, and optics; an analysis of poems by the painter Georg Hoefnagel demonstrating how religious, philosophical, and political concerns impinge on questions of imitation; ground-breaking interpretations of Arcimboldo's paintings of composite heads as imperial allegories; an account of a poet-astronomer's collaboration with artists; an essay on Ancients and Moderns in art and science in Prague; and a new review of art, politics, science, and the Kunstkammer

Art · Art history · Humanism · The Renaissance · Theology · Philosophy · Psychology · Renaissance Literature and Culture

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